Apache Superset Repo Recap: April 2026
April was a strong month for the Apache Superset™ community: 69 contributors merged 427 pull requests across nearly every layer of the project. The headline is the arrival of Semantic Layers — a major new datasource type that lets Superset chart against governed semantic models from backends like Snowflake and dbt MetricFlow. Alongside it, the AG Grid table gained in-cell mini-bar charts, the deck.gl mapping stack was modernized onto MapLibre, and the export and drill-down experiences picked up real polish.
Beyond the code, the community kept growing. Superset gained more than 1,700 GitHub stars in April (now north of 72,000), welcomed 32 new contributors to the repo, and added nearly 100 new members to the community Slack. Twenty-four people merged their very first Superset PR this month — welcome, all of you.
Highlights
Semantic Layers Land in Superset
The biggest story of the month is the arrival of Semantic Layers, gated behind the new SEMANTIC_LAYERS feature flag. A semantic layer is a governed set of dimensions and metrics defined outside Superset; this work makes those layers first-class citizens you can browse, manage, and chart against directly.
The foundation went in as a stacked series of PRs from betodealmeida: a create/edit/delete UI that surfaces heterogeneous backends (Snowflake, dbt MetricFlow, Pandas) alongside databases, with a configuration form generated dynamically from each backend's schema (#38376); full CRUD for semantic views from the dataset list (#38396); inline editing of a view's description and cache timeout (#38365); and a tabbed edit modal that shows a view's dimensions and metrics fetched from a new backend structure endpoint (#39628).
From there, semantic views became fully usable: they're now a first-class datasource in Explore, so you can open and chart them like any dataset (#37817), and dashboards can apply native filters against semantic-view-backed charts from the filter bar (#39728). It's an early foundation, but a significant one.
Mini-Bar Chart Columns in the AG Grid Table
The Table V2 chart (AG Grid) gained configurable sparkline and mini-bar chart columns, letting you visualize per-row numeric trends right inside table cells (#36344). This shipped from first-time contributor andre-fong, and the AG_GRID_TABLE_ENABLED flag is now on by default.
Modernized deck.gl Maps with a MapLibre Renderer
The legacy deck.gl and Mapbox map plugins were rebuilt on deck.gl 9 and react-map-gl v8, with a new map_renderer control that lets a chart use MapLibre (free, no API key) or Mapbox (API key required) (#38035). Existing dashboards are unaffected: the viz keys are unchanged, and a migration keeps current charts on Mapbox automatically.
Granular Export Controls and Drill-Down Exports
Export permissions got finer-grained: Phase 2 and 3 of granular export controls add separate permissions for screenshot exports (can_export_image), SQL Lab CSV exports (can_export_data), and clipboard copy (can_copy_clipboard), gated behind the GRANULAR_EXPORT_CONTROLS flag (#38581). And the Drill to Detail and Drill By modals gained CSV and XLSX download buttons, so users can export drill-down data without leaving the modal (#37109).
Charts & Visualizations
- Currency formatting controls for the Country Map chart, bringing it to parity with the World Map (#39016)
- Fixed clipping of bars in the ECharts horizontal stacked bar chart (#39012)
- Fixed a Word Cloud query bug where "Sort by metric" added an unintended secondary sort (#39073)
- Removed the semi-transparent opacity from the filter badge details panel for better legibility (#39074)
SQL Lab
- Inline SQL syntax validation for SQLite-based engines (SQLite, GSheets, Shillelagh), surfacing precise line/column errors in the editor (#38698)
- Fixed a three-year-old bug on Microsoft SQL Server involving un-aliased expressions (#38986)
- Schema pinning persisted per database and catalog, plus per-table column sort toggles (#39396)
format_sqlnow applies the correct database dialect when formatting (#39393)- Fixed the "Save as new" / "Update" buttons in the Save Query modal (#39179)
MCP & AI
April was a heavy month for hardening Superset's MCP (Model Context Protocol) service, the bridge that lets AI assistants drive Superset:
- Fixed several tool reliability bugs — stale SSL connection crashes, heatmap errors, and raw-mode table charts (#38990, #39015)
- Fixed a crash when querying OAuth-authenticated databases like Snowflake (#39166)
- Removed an unsafe fallback in the MCP auth layer when JWT resolution fails (#39106)
- Aligned the
list_databasestool with the chart/dashboard filter pattern (#39113)
Security
- Security audit logging for user, role, and group lifecycle events plus login/logout activity (#39121)
- Added an access check to
SqlExecutionResultsCommand.validate()so users without permission can't read others' results (#38952) - Restored Drill to Detail and Drill By for embedded (guest token) users (#39214)
Internationalization
- Filled in hundreds of missing Brazilian Portuguese (pt_BR) UI strings (#38826)
Dependency Updates
- Dependabot stayed busy, with 185 dependency-update PRs merged in April keeping frontend and backend packages current for security and stability.
Contributors
April's work came from 69 contributors:
Abdulrehman-PIAIC80387, aikawa-ohno, Aitema-gmbh, alex-poor, alexandrusoare, amaannawab923, aminghadersohi, andre-fong, andriiiiiko, AoLiGei1221, arunkumar0398, ASolarers-Rodriguez, bdonovan1, betodealmeida, birkskyum, bschreder, cyphercodes, DamianPendrak, davidkopelent, declan-zhao, dimbleby, djvu2k6, dmunozv04, dpgaspar, EnxDev, EPoikans, eschutho, FirozaAB, gabotorresruiz, geido, greggailly, hainenber, hughhhh, innovark37, jakubhruby, jakubhrubyorgis, joaopamaral, justinpark, kgabryje, luizotavio32, mapledan, marunrun, massucattoj, MDeadman, michael-s-molina, michaelkremmel, mikebridge, mistercrunch, msyavuz, nitishagar, RaffaelZampieri, richardfogaca, Rodooodles, rusackas, sadpandajoe, saintLaurent00, SBIN2010, sfirke, sha174n, shantanukhond, SkinnyPigeon, thakerhardiks, venkateshwaracholan, villebro, Vitor-Avila, wanjoc, xavier-GitHub76, yousoph, zayleak
First-Time Contributors
A warm welcome to April's 24 first-time contributors: Abdulrehman-PIAIC80387, Aitema-gmbh, andre-fong, andriiiiiko, arunkumar0398, bdonovan1, bschreder, cyphercodes, djvu2k6, dmunozv04, EPoikans, greggailly, jakubhruby, joaopamaral, MDeadman, michaelkremmel, mikebridge, RaffaelZampieri, Rodooodles, saintLaurent00, shantanukhond, thakerhardiks, venkateshwaracholan, wanjoc
Get Involved
Want to be part of next month's recap? There's a place for everyone:
- Contributing Guide: superset.apache.org/docs/contributing
- GitHub Repository: github.com/apache/superset
- Community Slack: Join the conversation at superset.apache.org/community
- Community Calendar: Working groups, SIP reviews, and town halls are open to all on the Superset Community Calendar
See you next month.
